We Love Katamari is a sequel to 2004's Katamari Damacy (and in this case, a remaster following Katamari Damacy Reroll released back in 2018), and what to say. It's a game made out of pure love result of the great reception of the first one, hence the title of We Love Katamari, and as a sequel it's not a game that tries too hard to be different or supersede the original as it was never intended to, it quite literally is just more Katamari Damacy for the enjoyment of those who were obsessed with the rolling puzzle-action gameplay, the bizarre and weird yet funny and compelling story, or that were hooked on the varied soundtrack mix of Shibuya-kei, Lounge or Jazz Pop music tracks.
We Love Katamari is, by all means, a love letter and an important message to the video game industry where the key is to not fix what isn't broken, just build on and improve on it. This game is longer, has more levels and a lot of them are way more interesting challenge levels than the first one, the soundtrack keeps the same vibe while adding a new twist with some Swing or Bossa Nova tracks here and there and the world you've gotta roll up in some levels is way more detailed and even more expansive when you're big enough to roll everything, features a bunch of landmarks in our world with some other funny things that really make you wonder how much time and effort did they put in placing each little thing that puts the whole world together, and that when you're big enough you're simply able to roll over.
It was, by far, a very charming and even challenging experience to have, with every single stage being different enough to be interesting and the surrounding world around you being substantially different and feeling way more alive than Damacy's, only caveat would be in collecting all Cousins as some of these appear in very long levels and it's not like you can't really roll them up and then opt out, but then for the rest, it's pretty much a straight upgrade.
Reroll + Royal Reverie besides just being a remaster that makes the game look greater, adding in new shading that fits great with the low-poly oftentimes pixelated graphics of the original, and finally being in 60 FPS constantly, besides it adds a new mode where you get to play memories of the King when he was as small as the Prince and used to roll up things too, these levels are fine for the most part, but feels like there was more to be explored with maybe some As Large As Possible level here and there where we could see another version of the same world we rolled up as the Prince? The whole mode was Monkeycraft's thing so I get why they didn't do it and just stuck to lesser, smaller levels but it still would've been fun as it's the one exclusive thing to this port and probably the most original content this series has gotten in a good while.
Here's a hopin' they fix up and remaster Me & My Katamari sometime soon! Would hate to have to wait so much for it though, in an ideal world Bandai Namco would care enough to pair it up with Beautiful Katamari as well since that game is pretty unaccesible on a console that sold terribly in Japan and has DLC stages that would be cool to have built-in, but one can dream... And that's what We Love Katamari is all about! Granting wishes! How ironic.
We Love Katamari is, by all means, a love letter and an important message to the video game industry where the key is to not fix what isn't broken, just build on and improve on it. This game is longer, has more levels and a lot of them are way more interesting challenge levels than the first one, the soundtrack keeps the same vibe while adding a new twist with some Swing or Bossa Nova tracks here and there and the world you've gotta roll up in some levels is way more detailed and even more expansive when you're big enough to roll everything, features a bunch of landmarks in our world with some other funny things that really make you wonder how much time and effort did they put in placing each little thing that puts the whole world together, and that when you're big enough you're simply able to roll over.
It was, by far, a very charming and even challenging experience to have, with every single stage being different enough to be interesting and the surrounding world around you being substantially different and feeling way more alive than Damacy's, only caveat would be in collecting all Cousins as some of these appear in very long levels and it's not like you can't really roll them up and then opt out, but then for the rest, it's pretty much a straight upgrade.
Reroll + Royal Reverie besides just being a remaster that makes the game look greater, adding in new shading that fits great with the low-poly oftentimes pixelated graphics of the original, and finally being in 60 FPS constantly, besides it adds a new mode where you get to play memories of the King when he was as small as the Prince and used to roll up things too, these levels are fine for the most part, but feels like there was more to be explored with maybe some As Large As Possible level here and there where we could see another version of the same world we rolled up as the Prince? The whole mode was Monkeycraft's thing so I get why they didn't do it and just stuck to lesser, smaller levels but it still would've been fun as it's the one exclusive thing to this port and probably the most original content this series has gotten in a good while.
Here's a hopin' they fix up and remaster Me & My Katamari sometime soon! Would hate to have to wait so much for it though, in an ideal world Bandai Namco would care enough to pair it up with Beautiful Katamari as well since that game is pretty unaccesible on a console that sold terribly in Japan and has DLC stages that would be cool to have built-in, but one can dream... And that's what We Love Katamari is all about! Granting wishes! How ironic.